Plant and sediment properties in seagrass meadows from two Mediterranean CO vents: Implications for carbon storage capacity of acidified oceans.

Assessing the status of important carbon sinks such as seagrass meadows is of primary importance when dealing with potential climate change mitigation strategies. This study examined plant and sediment properties in seagrass meadows (Cymodocea nodosa (Ucria) Asch.) from two high pCO-low pH Mediterranean vent systems, located at Milos (Greece) and Vulcano (Italy) Islands, providing insights on carbon storage potential in future acidified oceans.

Metabolic responses to high CO conditions at a CO vent site in juveniles of a marine isopod species assemblage.

We are starting to understand the relationship between metabolic rate responses and species' ability to respond to exposure to high CO. However, most of our knowledge has come from investigations of single species. The examination of metabolic responses of closely related species with differing distributions around natural elevated CO areas may be useful to inform our understanding of their adaptive significance.

Energy metabolism and cellular homeostasis trade-offs provide the basis for a new type of sensitivity to ocean acidification in a marine polychaete at a high-CO2 vent: adenylate and phosphagen energy pools versus carbonic anhydrase.

Species distributions and ecology can often be explained by their physiological sensitivity to environmental conditions. Whilst we have a relatively good understanding of how these are shaped by temperature, for other emerging drivers, such as PCO2  we know relatively little. The marine polychaete Sabella spallanzanii increases its metabolic rate when exposed to high PCO2  conditions and remains absent from the CO2 vent of Ischia.